People who put up unauthorised buildings are creating their own graves, said Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka making a special statement on the recent natural disaster faced by the country.
He said nearly 200 lives were lost and nearly another 100 went missing due to the recent rain, floods and landslides. The Western and Southern Provinces faced the brunt of this calamity, he said.
Last year too, rains experienced on May 16 caused the biggest damage in the Kelani Valley region. This time, floods affected areas around the Kelani, Gin and Nilwala rivers, the minister said.
"More lives were lost this time and hundreds of thousands had been displaced. We as a country or people could not avert disasters caused by climatic changes. But part of the damage was caused by man made disasters such as unauthorised land reclamation and building construction," he said.
Minister Ranawaka said glaciers melted due to global warming. The world would face more flood, landslide and drought situations. Sri Lanka being an island would have to brace up to a host of problems in future. The biggest problem is the manner in which we should face these problems, he said.
Although our meteorological department was greatly ill-equipped, it could rely on accurate weather information relayed by sophisticated media sources such as the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera. There was satellite information available in the world. But the Meteorological Department could not issue an early warning about the disaster, Minister Ranawaka said.